It’s fun to feel the team chemistry with off-the-beaten path quotes from each game. Below is De’Anthony Melton describing a moment he had with Kyle Anderson, who sat out the Dallas game with back spasms, but still was on the bench.
But first, it was just announced that he has a sprained ACL. What a twist of fate!
Warriors guard De’Anthony Melton has a sprained left ACL and will undergo further tests. He will not play in tomorrow night’s game against the Grizzlies and an update on his status will be provided when available. https://x.com/warriorspr/status/1857168859473805803?s=46
This is where Melton sprained his ACL:
Melton on the podium after the win Dallas:
Seeing those two dudes (Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson) go at it was fun to watch. Like you said, being on the receiving end of this, I mean, after he hit that last shot, I just ran straight to Kyle and just be like, “Yo, he’s crazy.” Like, we’ve never been on this side of the spectrum for him before. So just to see it and be on a team where he’s doing it with, is special.
The other thing that’s fun to do, especially after wins, is hear the other team praise our squad. Icymi, Mark Daigneault and Lu Dort had some good things to say after the game in OKC:
…credit Golden State. I mean, they were the sharper, better team today… I never want to take anything away from a team that plays as sharp as Golden State did today. But I thought our execution against a team that requires great execution just wasn’t up to where it needed to be to control a game. And the offense is sometimes gonna come and go. There’s a shot-making element to everything, but I just thought we didn’t execute to the level that we needed to. We had a lot of breakdowns and against a team like that, that moves it well with advantages and that can finish plays with shots, it’s hard to have breakdowns and beat them.
There’s even more from Diagneault and Dort, please check it out!
And then going more macro, now that all that Klay Thompson stuff is old news, here’s Steve Kerr on the roster and Priority No. 1: being a Top-Five defensive team, on if there’s any similarities to managing Team USA’s depth, something that I’ve wondered as well:
Not really. I’m really adapting to our personnel and our roster and just how well everybody has played throughout training camp and the early part of the season. They’ve all earned minutes and it just makes sense for us to play a lot of people and be really aggressive and see how that plays out. So far, it’s really worked well, but only because the guys are agreeing to it and that’s not always the case. It’s not easy playing five minutes and coming out. You don’t get a shooting rhythm and there’s going to be games where that might be an issue, but our guys have done a great job of really just competing and staying positive and supporting each other.
… Draymond (Green) has always been great as a small 5, something we will go to for sure. But in the meantime, we have established a really good defense with two bigs, playing most of the games with two bigs. And that’s our number one goal this year is to be a top-five defensive team. And so the small-ball 5 will be something that’s always there for us, but we’re not turning to that. I’m not turning to Draymond as the starting 5. It’ll be more mix it in, here and there.
All the pregame and postgame videos and transcripts from the win on Captain Klay Night are below:
00:00 Steve, how was — Steve, how close were you to crying out there?
00:12 STEVE KERR: I was a little misty eyed for sure. That was really cool, an amazing moment. Our crowd was great. Klay was great. You can see how much he enjoyed it and beautiful, beautiful scene.
00:26 Steve, how was — how would you describe the fourth quarter? And then after the game, we saw you embrace Klay and Steph comes over and embraces Klay. How would you describe just the fourth quarter and the immediate few minutes following the game here?
00:37 Well, it was kind of similar to the second quarter where they they jumped us. We won the first and the third quarters, pretty well, played really well. Ball was moving. Our defense was good. Second and fourth, we really struggled in both. And they got off to that great start, took the lead and just an incredible finish anchored by Steph and Draymond. Steph on the offensive side, Draymond on the defensive side. It’s amazing to watch those guys still after all these years and couldn’t be prouder of the team for a tough win against a great team.
01:22 How critical was Andrew’s defense on Luka, particularly in the second half?
01:25 Yeah. Wiggs was great. I just think there has to be an accumulative effect on Luka. You can’t stop him. He gets so many shots. So you just have to try to make it difficult. And he played 41 minutes. Wiggs was draped all over him. And I thought maybe that affected the three-point shooting a little bit. He was 2-for-10. So he’s such a phenomenal player, but you just make it difficult. And I thought that’s what Wiggs did.
02:00 There was a lot of talk before the game about Klay’s emotions and everything. But do you think Steph had a little extra jolt tonight?
02:09 Yeah, for sure. And he was matched up against him defensively. We did our pregame scout and we went through the matchups and it’s almost surreal saying, “All right, Steph, you got Klay.” I mean, just, and Steph smiled as soon as soon as he saw the matchups. He just, I looked over at him and he smiled and kind of shook his head, like, “This is weird,” you know? So it was a strange night in that regard, but ultimately it’s a great, great night. Klay hit some big shots and 22 points and made his mark on the game. And obviously we were thrilled to come away with the win and then to see the emotion in the crowd and the love for Klay was fantastic.
02:59 Little bit of that trash talk happening between Draymond, Steph and Klay. Also a little peek into what practices have been like for the past —
03:05 I didn’t notice, were they —
03:07 Well, I mean, Klay did Steph’s shimmy, like, someone else did Klay’s snarl. Draymond was chirping at him. Is that — was that what it was like in practice with those three guys when they were going up against each other?
03:19 Yeah, yeah, those guys. There was so many moments together and, yeah there’s always trash-talk in the NBA and practices. It’s almost always in fun. And so those guys had — they had a lot of moments together over the last 12, 13 years.
03:44 It seems like you guys had a tough time scoring with Steph off the court. Do you think this was more of an aberration night because the bench has obviously been good, or is there something there? Like, you gotta figure out ways to generate better offense when–
03:59 For sure, we have to. We have to generate better offense. We’ve had some really good nights without Steph and good moments without Steph, but it’s always going to be harder without him on the floor and we’ve got to execute better. We’ve got to continue to practice and look at the lineups that we’re putting out there. But I’m not worried about that. I love the depth on this team. We have a lot of options. It’s early in the season, we’re still learning a lot about our team and so we’ll get better.
04:27 You mentioned Steph being extra charged up. Did you feel that from Draymond right away, too, that this was kind of–
04:34 Yeah.
04:35 And what does that version of Draymond do?
04:38 I mean, you saw it down the stretch. Chris DeMarco said he was playing like it was Game 7 of the Finals That’s — but that’s Draymond. He’s the ultimate competitor. And it did feel like a big night. Obviously, it was with Klay coming back, and the defending conference champions in the house. So it felt like a big night and our guys responded.
05:04 When you see the Mavericks getting fat with Steph on the bench there and taking the lead, how do you dictate when Steph comes back?
05:12 Yeah, I mean, we’re — we try to — we map out, I think, 34 minutes every night for him. And we try to keep it as close to that as possible. We’ve been lucky this year. We’ve been able to get some big wins and keep his minutes down. But the last two games, OKC, he played 36 tonight, 35. As long as that’s the heavy night for him and not 41, 42, I think we’ll be able to keep him going over the course of the season.
05:42 And when he’s hitting big shot after big shot, what are you thinking over there, watching it?
05:47 Good job, Steph. Yeah, I’ve been watching this for a long time. It never gets old. It’s incredible watching him. It really is. And you just think every shot’s going in and he loves it. He loves the moment.
06:06 Is there any part of you that is relieved that this night is over? And then broadly speaking I mean, as you know, in this league, players move around all the time.
06:15 Yeah.
06:16 Will you ever get to a point where it’s just normal to play against Klay?
06:21 Probably not. Probably not. This is the exception, not the rule. I mean, the rule is, like you said, you see players who have played for you all the time, given how much movement there is in the league. But but Klay being the franchise icon, 13-year Warrior, probably never gonna feel totally normal. Thank you.
06:53 De’Anthony, just what did you make of the pregame festivities and celebrations for Klay?
07:00 DE’ANTHONY MELTON: I thought it was nice. Somebody that does that much work and puts in that much time, sweat, tears, into the organization, they should get applauded for it. So seeing something like that, seeing the fans turn out, it was real nice.
07:16 And then what was w the key to holding holding them off, down the stretch?
07:20 Obviously, Steph was incredible, but it felt like a playoff game out there. We just had to lock in defensively. It was some miscues that we had, which led to which led to shots. They’re a great team and they got some really good players. So they’re going to go on their runs. They’re going to do what they got to do. But down the stretch, we just got to lock in even more.
07:42 You’ve seen that core of Steph, Klay, Draymond from the other side of things. How kind of odd is that for you, seeing them separate and seeing them in the second quarter, where Steph’s hitting an and-one and then staring down.
07:54 Yeah, yeah. I mean, I love to see it. I love to see it. Those dudes going at it, even on the same team for so long. So seeing those two dudes go at it was fun to watch. Like you said, being on the receiving end of this, I mean, after he hit that last shot, I just ran straight to Kyle and just be like, “Yo, he’s crazy.” Like, we’ve never been on this side of the spectrum for him before. So just to see it and be on a team where he’s doing it with, is special.
08:25 Hey, De’Anthony. You’re a young guy. These guys were already winning titles by the time you got into the league. What was kind of your image of Klay as a fan and then somebody just entering the league, who didn’t really know him or his role with this organization?
08:44 I mean, coming into the league and even before, I mean, I’ve known he’s an elite shooter, a knockdown shooter, and he can shoot with the best of them. And he don’t need too much space to get it off. And I think that’s what makes him so special. He shoots it at a high clip, even contested. So all those type things just coming into it was already on my radar in terms of guarding Steph and going at Steph, I mean, at Klay. So to see it on the opposite end, it’s cool. And to guard him, play against him, is cool too, while I’m in a Warriors jersey.
09:21 Klay did like the shimmy. Steph hit him with a point-after three. He did the snarl later. What was it like to see them go at it?
09:29 It was fun seeing two friends go at it. And that competitive aspect was fun to see. I know they loved it. I know the crowd loved it and the whole world probably loved it too.
09:42 I don’t know exactly where you were after Steph’s dagger three, but do you know what he said into the camera?
09:49 I don’t know. I hope it was a lot. Hope it was — I don’t know if it was a little explicit or not, but I hope he said a lot to the camera.
00:00 Draymond, did you and Steph have any kind of, like, coerced plan to make sure Klay didn’t win tonight?
00:14 DRAYMOND GREEN: No, we just wanted to win the game. It wasn’t really about Klay winning. It’s an In-Season Tournament game. We bombed last year and we wanted to compete for that. So, NBA Cup, I’m sorry. So we wanted to compete for that. Obviously, with Klay coming back in here, we knew he’d come in competitive, as he always has been. But wasn’t quite good enough today.
00:42 You’re a guy who wears your emotions on your sleeve a lot when you play. Steph can be far more demure a lot of times. What’s it like when you see him getting riled up as he did, especially after he hit that dagger shot?
00:55 I knew he’d come in ready to go. Yeah. Which is very evident by that first foul. He was just — he just wanted to take the ball from Klay so bad. But when you see him express that type of emotion, everybody else just fall in line. I try to lead in that category. When he’s up, I move to the side, let him do his thing and be in support. But he was absolutely incredible tonight and I knew he’d be locked in from the gate.
01:27 Kind of building off that, in a sense, just the and-one that towards the end of the second quarter, just kind of how odd is that, given that you’ve played with Klay and Steph for so long to see Klay kind of, or not, Steph kind of giving Klay the mean mug there?
01:40 I’ve seen them battle a lot in practice, so it wasn’t that odd. Once you get in the game, it’s just about the game. We weren’t out there, like, “Oh man, Klay’s in a different jersey.” It’s — it is what it is. We had great years here. He’s over there trying to do something special. We’re here trying to do something special. So once you get it between those lines, all that extra stuff go out the window.
02:04 What’d you make of the — what’d you make of the crowd tonight?
02:07 It’s crazy. Soon as we walked in, I came out, Loon said, “Man, this feel like Oracle,” and it definitely had that feel, like, I don’t know. It just — maybe it was the court, but it just felt darker in there. And it was intense the whole night. They were into it. It was a great crowd. We need that every night. And that’s not a realistic thing to expect every night. But man, they were amazing. Incredible. Shout out to them.
02:38 How much do you keep in touch with Klay? And if you see him after this game, what would you tell him?
02:46 I saw him. I told him, “Way to shoot.” As far as keeping in touch, you ever tried to keep in touch with Klay? It’s a very one-sided thing, so the love is there, the relationship is there. I’ll, I’ll get back in touch after the season. We’ll both be in LA. We’ll kick it and spend some time together. But I’m not adding more gray hairs to myself to try and chase Klay down. No chance.
03:21 Draymond, there’s been times, maybe, you thought about leaving or this thing has went for 10 years and it could have gone a bunch of different ways. What is it like to actually experience it? Did you feel like y’all — did it feel like you’ve been through a lot? Did you feel a little bit older out there seeing a guy you were with from 2012?
03:42 In all honesty, hit a shot on him, you like, you’re gonna say something to him. He had a shot on us. He said something else. He did a little terrible shimmy, he did. It’s awful. But that’s the competitive nature. You don’t win four championships together without that competitive fire. And so he has that. We’ve known that forever. We have that. And he’s known that forever. And so that’s always gonna happen. When you play against your brother, people always talk about, “Oh man, why are those guys close?” When you play against somebody you’re close with, you wanna beat them even more. You wanna play well against them even more and it just raises that level of competition. So seeing him over there, you wanna play great. You wanna do great things. And that was kind of the mindset. As far as feeling old or worrying about — if I’m totally honest with you, I had zero emotions towards, “Ah, this is Klay’s return.” Now, I did some things to make sure I had zero emotions about it. But it wasn’t just like, “Oh, I don’t care.” No, of course, we’re human beings. We care. But been at this a long time, man. Played against a lot of friends. This is obviously different. Guy who, Klay Thompson, gets just as much credit is building this as Steph Curry and myself, if not more. He is right at the center of that. So we haven’t had quite that thing. But nonetheless, it just wasn’t that for me. It was a basketball game that we really wanted to win, to have implications more than just a regular season game. And that was about it.
05:44 Draymond, you mentioned that Steph was really fired up, but it looked like from the beginning, you brought your own juice and it’s like you wanted to set a defensive tone early in the game. Is that kind of–
05:53 That’s who I am, Monte. I’ve been trying to do that for 13 years, set a tone defensively. But yeah, they got two monsters over there when it comes to handling the basketball and playmaking and scoring and making other guys better. So you gotta meet that force with force. And for me, that’s where I come in. That’s where I try to anchor this defense, bring a certain mentality. Can’t expect guys to bring a certain mentality if you don’t give them anything to follow. And so that was my mindset going in, to be ultra-aggressive on both sides of the floor, but especially the defensive side of the ball and make sure that they felt us, make sure that they know if they were trying to get there, it’s going to be hard to get there. And I think we did a pretty good job, could do better. We could be a lot better, shot 52%. But overall, when we needed stops, we got ’em.
06:52 You mentioned you did a few things to make sure that this was, I guess, just a basketball game. What — anything you’d like to share?
07:02 Yeah, I I just watched this tribute video earlier. Shout out to Double R (Raymond Ridder). He was nice enough to let me see it. But I just didn’t wanna deal with those emotions because A) there’s a love for Klay that ain’t going nowhere. But B) in watching his reruns, we’re all a part of that. So then you start to go into the emotion, “Ah, man, I remember that. Hey, man, on that playoff run, we had to do this to overcome this.” And you start to go down those lanes. Let him have that. You watch it for the first time, you deal with those emotions. I had zero interest in dealing with him. And so that was a big thing for me. I just did not want the first time I saw his tribute video to be me standing there watching it.
07:49 So when the crowd’s tipping the sailor hats and everything, are you just trying to not — ?
07:53 I don’t give a damn about them tipping no hats. That–
07:57 It was clearly like a very emotional moment when he is going around there. Are you trying to–
08:01 Oh, for him? Yeah. He, like, he was — he took it all in. That was great, but that wasn’t my moment. That was Klay Thompson moment. That’s for him to get emotional about. I tipped my cap to him when he take me on his boat this summer. I didn’t tip him a cap today. My guy Michael Levine here. Love you brother, it’s great to see you. You know when Mike come in town, we gotta win. So, shout out to my guy.
00:00 Jason, another tight game that came down to the final seconds. Just what was the difference in tonight and why you guys weren’t able to come out with it?
00:14 JASON KIDD: Yeah, again, on the road we put ourselves in a position to win and the last two minutes, we have to get better. In the last three games, the last two minutes, we can’t turn the ball over. We gotta rebound the ball and giving up 18 offensive rebounds. Even with that being said, we still have a chance, but we’ve gotta be better at rebounding the ball and then being able to execute late game, understanding the tendencies of our opponent and what hurts us and what doesn’t hurt us, even if they score. And so we just have to be better as a team and we will. This was a great test for our group. We got better tonight, even though we lost. And so there’s a lot of positive things to build on.
01:03 Just looking at the type of the shot quality that you got tonight, especially in those final two minutes, I guess, just what did you think of the type of shots that you were getting?
01:11 Yeah, we were in the bonus and we just — we were getting in the paint, we had some good looks that just didn’t go down. Luka had great looks that he normally makes. And that’s just basketball. Sometimes you make them, sometimes you don’t. But you look at the looks. Q makes a big three. We felt like he might have gotten fouled on that three on the landing, wasn’t called. But just understanding the guy’s fought til the end. Again, we’ll watch the tape and we’ll get better from this.
01:43 Jason, what did you think of all the emotions surrounding the festivities for Klay and how he handled that, how he responded and performed tonight?
01:51 Yeah, I thought Klay played great, with all the attention from from the Bay and then also from, I mean, from the fans and then also from the organization. The Warriors did an incredible job of honoring him. And so I thought he played his game had some great looks. And he put it — he helped us put us in a position to win that game
02:15 Jason, you mentioned Quentin’s three late. He went from DNP to something like 30 minutes. What did you see from him tonight?
02:22 Yeah, he was good. I thought his energy and effort, we talk about that being able to judge or talk about what we can control. And I thought he did a great job with his energy and effort on both ends, defense and offense. Again, he made a big three. And then defensively, I thought he did a really good job for us.
02:44 Steph Curry scored, I think, 10 consecutive points in clutch time. Just what are the challenges that he poses to your defense in those situations?
02:52 Yeah. When you talk about Steph, his ability to play off the dribble, being able to get to the spot that he wants, his tendencies. Understand he’s going to get you dancing. And if he gets you dancing, he’s going to get that three off. And so you have to be solid. You gotta try and make it — send them to the basket, but that’s not easy. He’s not just going to give in. And so I thought you saw his calmness and he got to his spot and he made a big three.
03:22 …in the days leading up to it and how did it compare to the actual experience?
03:27 KLAY THOMPSON: I actually didn’t really think much of it because I wanted to go in here with an open mind and it was a really cool experience. I appreciate the fans very much. The captain’s hat ended up being a great touch because I’m such a passionate boater and I saw a lot of familiar faces in the crowd. And that was a warm-hearted feeling. So it was really cool to see the fans, their gratitude towards myself and something I will never take for granted. So it was very. very awesome.
04:05 The last, couple games have been some tough clutch losses. Just what are some themes that you’ve seen in those situations that maybe could be cleaned up going forward?
04:16 I know, we’ve had four games this year where it could have gone either way. Tonight, this one really stung being up seven, under four minutes left. We’ll watch the film and get better. But I am really proud of how this team keeps fighting. We’re still getting to know each other and I keep telling the guys it’s better go early — it’s better to go through this stuff early in the season versus game 60. So I know we have a chance to be great and we just gotta stay the course.
04:42 Klay, a little surprised to see — a little surprised to see Steph guarding you. How did that — how did that feel? I assume you’d had — you guys have gone against each other before, but what was that like? And what was it like to be on the other side of kind of Curry finishing a game like that?
05:04 Well, it was fun to match up with Steph. I mean, we guarded each other plenty of times in practice with Team USA camps and All-Star games. So a real competitive NBA game, it was pretty surreal. But after a few minutes, it was just basketball and then, yeah, it hurts to be on the other side of one of his flurries. Guy got hot at the end and made some ridiculous shots. I know I’ve been on the other end and it sucks, but like I said before, I think we play them three more times, so hopefully we can learn from it and learn their tendencies a little better, but sucks because this was a big game for the Cup. So, something we just gotta digest and move forward.
05:51 You hit a little shimmy after one of your threes in the first half. Looked like Steph maybe said something to you about that coming out of a timeout. You guys are going back and forth. What was the — I don’t know, was the shimmy an impromptu thing? What was kind of going on there? And what was it like just having that kind of banter, that kind of competition with a guy who obviously you’ve played with a lot?
06:13 It was an impromptu thing, but when you’re feeling it, you do stuff instinctually. So I’ve done it before. I know Steph’s done it many times, so it was a fun, little playful thing to do and he was kind of surprised I did it. But it was a great shot and I’ll probably still do it in the future. It’s — I play my best brand of ball when I’m playing loose.
06:39 Klay over, over here. Before the game, Steve had mentioned that you and Steph talked last night to get rid of the idea of him giving a speech after the video tribute. What can you tell us about that conversation?
06:55 Wasn’t very long. It was a couple of text messages and it was a cool moment to feel the energy from the fans and — especially all the chatter that I heard. It was all positive and it just means a lot to myself because I really enjoyed my time here and played as hard — left it out — left it all out on the floor.
07:19 Hi, Klay. Nice to see you. What was that like, walking in with 400 or so Warriors employees and the captain hats, coming in. Was that more than you could have dreamed of?
07:34 I guess that was really cool. I’m very grateful for the employees to give me that kind of love. That was really cool and very grateful for that. Totally unexpected and definitely put a smile on my face and something I’ll never forget. So, I mean, kudos to the organization for making that happen and that was really a cool moment for myself.
07:54 Klay, seems like there was a bit of gamesmanship going on. I’m not sure how much you were looking, but you and Steph were on the same side of the court in warm-ups and he was sneaking peeks at you. I don’t know if you were sneaking peeks back at him, but then you have the three and the pointing, the shimmy, all that stuff. That has to be so much fun at your level and his level to be doing that in a real game, that the whole world is watching. I mean, just describe that emotion.
08:26 Yeah, it was really cool during warmups. I mean, I felt the love from the fans and it was a little weird at first seeing Steph warm up, but that’s the nature of our business. Change happens. It’s happened to plenty of great players who’ve won championships together. I mean, but, yeah, it was surreal and a night I’ll never forget. Unfortunately, it was a tough loss. Could have easily gone our way, but that’s life. And I think we’ll see the Dubs three more times. So there’s plenty of more battles ahead which is the fun part.
00:00 There was kind of a lot of, I don’t know, I guess you could call it chatter between you and Klay. I mean, did you anticipate it was gonna be kind of like that?
00:09 STEPH CURRY: For sure, I mean, that’s my guy, that’s my friend, bro, dawg for 13 years, so there’s a lot of history. You’re gonna have a lot of back and forth. Some of it was competitive, some of it was fun. And thankfully we were all able to focus on the game and just hoop and compete. It was an unreal night for sure all the way around from the emotions at the pregame of him being acknowledged and the crowd during two-line layups going crazy for him, the video tribute. And I’m so surprised they ran that post-up for him on the first play. I blacked out on that one. I wasn’t gonna let him score and I fouled him. But it was a pretty special night all the way around. Obviously we won. It was a great, great finish, but well done all the way around.
01:01 Draymond called it a terrible shimmy that he did —
01:03 Awful. Awful. I — huh?
01:07 Is that 1 out of 10? It was low?
01:09 I don’t wanna rate it. It was hilarious. I know he wanted it really bad, to have a moment like that. So I just love having fun with it ’cause you’re carrying a lot of emotions into the game. You don’t know how it’s gonna come out. And there’s a lot of entertainment all the way around.
01:26 Steph, I saw you gave the signature night-night, but the game was still on the balance.
01:30 Did you feel that you could have —
01:31 Almost pulled a Si Woo Kim. For all those — the references from the President’s Cup, hit the night at on hole 16. No, but thankfully I was able to finish it. I got a three shot in my face by Grimes in the next possession. Had to go make those two free throws. Wiggs got a great stop, so, I think it was — so, yeah, yeah, a little premature, but thankfully I’m still undefeated on the night-night.
01:58 Steph, did you ask for the defensive assignment that you got and how did you think that went? You talked about the first possession’s a post-up, but then a couple times, like, there was isos where Klay was kind of iso-ing a little bit. How did you think that went?
02:14 No, I didn’t ask for it. It was Pretty straightforward based on their lineup matchups. We put Wiggs on Luka, that’s his guy, been ever since we’ve been with us. Melt in the starting lineup on Kyrie, I got Klay and then Draymond on Marshall and kind of roam a little bit, but I guess I wasn’t expecting the first play where, they put Klay on the block. I literally blacked out. I thought I was in training camp again, where I was trying to get a stop. Draymond was actually calling me off for — like, we called a bump where you don’t want me guarding the post-up guy and I go to the weak side. I heard him, but I didn’t hear him at the same time and it was a dumb foul. Weird way to start the game.
03:01 There are a lot of amateur lip readers online trying to dissect what you were saying into the camera at the end after the night-night. What what were you saying?
03:12 I really have no idea. I gotta go look at it myself. That type of moment with all the angst, all this raw emotion, I really don’t know what I said. I’ll let you know, though. I don’t shy away from what I say on the court. I have to go look at it again.
03:28 What’s the mentality you have? You come in, there’s three-and-a-half minutes to go, you guys are down six, and from there you make four straight buckets. What’s the mentality you take out there down the stretch of this game?
03:38 I don’t know, just try to be decisive. We picked them apart for most of the game. When we got in trouble, we were just a little sped up and rushed. And they played their starters most of the fourth quarter. To start the fourth quarter, they went on a little run. They took them out for maybe 30 seconds into that timeout. So we knew if we could just get organized and, obviously, we went pick-and-roll most of the time at the top with Luka and Lively, but you bring Lively away from the paint and get to the basket, kick outs, or if I had pull-up threes, you kind of live with those shots, but it was just getting organized and trying to slow down on offense. When we get rushed, you kind of go into the teeth of the defense, you have no options. And for me, I was trying to stay out of those type of situations down the stretch.
04:30 How would you describe the way the game went on a whole? And then of course the way that it finished.
04:36 It was a memorable night for sure. Like there’s — I know even from July when Klay decided to go to Dallas to us showing up for training camp and him not being here, it was kind of like a slow build to this night for everybody, ’cause it’s such a different look for us, Klay in a new uniform and granted, we won, so I can say this, but I couldn’t imagine it going any other way, where he played well, the crowd got an amazing show, went down to the wire. You can’t really draw it up any better and definitely special memories to reflect on 13 years he was here and the four championships and everything that we accomplished, and then trying to turn the page to where we are right now.
05:28 Before the game, you guys were shooting around and watching each other. Klay said that it was just kind of weird for him just to see you on the other side. Did you feel the same?
05:38 Absolutely. I had — you imagine what it’s gonna feel like or be like, but I didn’t even know if I wanted to go over and say hi to him. It was like a, yeah, on the blacktop in recess in high school or something like that where you just kind of, you don’t really know how to handle it because everybody’s trying to stay focused on the game. You don’t want to kind of lose your focus or your mentality on trying to prepare yourself for the game. But I think I — the first time I talked to him was right before the jump ball. So it was a weird balance all the way around, trying to handle all the emotions that we had.
06:24 Steph, coming in, Klay said that he — that this was just a regular season game in November. but at times tonight it felt like a Game 7. What did you think about the atmosphere and just the charge that was in the room?
06:40 I hope y’all didn’t believe him when he said that. But it was great. Like, it was everything you would imagine and would want for. I’m trying to think of another example of something like this, for a guy that’s still playing at a pretty high level. The history that we have, three guys, me, him and Draymond who only played for one franchise until this year. I don’t know if there’s another type of example like this. So the crowd, like I said, we were in two-line layups like seven minutes left on the rundown and they did the salute to Klay. And that was the first time I really — I think I stopped shooting for a little bit and was looking around, kind of smiling, taking it in with him, even though he was on the other side of the court. And then, like I said, I was in the tunnel during the first part of the tribute video, ’cause I knew I’d get real emotional if I was out there and looking down and watching him. So I tried to protect myself a little bit there and then you didn’t know how long the standing ovation was gonna go because that’s the fans’ moment to acknowledge him and celebrate him. And you could tell, I did look at that point, you could tell he was he was happy and and I think he did his little shoulder shrug. He’s, like, “All right, let’s go.” So that was a very, very cool moment.
08:11 Hi, Steph. last couple of possessions, they are kind of all mismatched, and you finished with iso. Is that the team plan, or kind of you feel on fire?
08:21 It’s both. Like, I mean, Lively’s a great defender and a shot-blocker in the paint, so to bring him out on the perimeter is always a good thing for us, but you just got to make reads. There was one play I turned it over, and I got downhill, and Wiggs came out of the corner for a lob. I thought he was gonna stay in the corner and I made a bad pass. That was the only real possession that we got a little mixed up on. The rest was, like I said, very decisive possessions and whether you make or miss those, you kind of have to live with it knowing how they defended us all night.
08:53 What was the conversation like between you and Klay last night? And why did you guys reach the, I guess, the mutual decision that your pregame speech would be scrapped?
09:04 Just from my standpoint, it was more about the fans acknowledging him and I don’t think I needed to say anything to egg that on. It was pretty apparent that when we got out here, like I said, for two-line layups and everything, after the tribute video, it was gonna speak loud enough. And so it’s obviously not about me. It’s about what he meant to the Bay area, to our franchise, to all the fans that got to watch him from 2011 to this past year. And I think it was really well done from an organization standpoint. The fans did their thing and me and Draymond got to be a part of the standing ovation that he deserved.
09:51 Tim kind of eeked into it, what I was gonna ask, but have you thought about what you would have said or what would you have said if you had to get out there at center court and address everyone?
10:01 I didn’t think about it much. I would have said just what I just said, pretty much like it’s about y’all. We have all of our moments behind-the-scenes or between us where we can acknowledge what we all meant to each other. But you give your life to this game for your whole career and we’ve had the blessings of being able to play in front of one fan base for so long. So no words that I would have said would have done it justice. It was for the 19, 000 people in that building.
10:34 Steph when this first happened, Klay going to the Mavericks, USA training camp was just starting. You were saying at the time that it would take a while to work through all the different emotions. I’m curious, when you quote-unquote, got over him leaving and maybe how much tonight may have helped you do that.
10:56 It’ll always be weird. There’s nothing that can cure that because you’ve heard us talk for years about all wanting to finish our careers playing for one organization. It obviously didn’t happen, but throughout this whole process, you want him to be happy. You want him to play basketball at the highest level for as long as he can. And a change of scenery is great. I know down the road, when it’s all said and done, and we all come back for all of the ceremonies and reveals and all that stuff, it’ll be a little bit more of an opportunity to truly reflect. But I think this game helped because you can just understand what it feels like to really see him on a different team and him to come back to a place that he called home for so long. I don’t know how it’ll play out. We’ll play them, what, two or three more times? I think I don’t know, but it’ll be a little bit more normal the next time.
11:56 How charged up did you feel Draymond was for this game and how good do you think he’s been defensively this first part of the season?
12:04 He’s been unreal, truly motivated. He’s moving well. He’s locked in mentally. He’s being the dog that he is and impacting the game on that end of the floor. I think today was no different than I felt all year. So yeah, just understand, like, we were all — the only conversations we had were, how do we stay mentally locked in and not let the emotions get the best of us? Everything I’ve been talking about this whole time. So, he’s been all-world defensively. And whether it’s at the 4 or at the 5, no matter who he’s guarding, him talking, he’s such a foundation for us to get us organized defensively save us at times and down the stretch tonight.
12:51 It was unbelievable what he was able to do, that block on Gafford and just the emotional plays that keep us going.
13:04 One thing Draymond said that helped him keep his mentals in check on emotional night, was that he watched the tribute video beforehand. Did you also do that?
13:13 No, I didn’t get to it. I just went into the tunnel just to kind of have my own little space to take it in. But we did talk about it enough beforehand that it wasn’t like I was coming out unprepared. And letting, like I said, the wave of emotions crash down. So it was — I couldn’t imagine a better night all the way around. And shout out to Klay for everything he meant to our organization. We don’t have any banners without him. He knows that. Everybody knows that. And when I go back and watch tonight, like, I’ll probably get goosebumps just from what the crowd was able to do to acknowledge him.
13:59 Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate that.
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